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RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY FOR THE 
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLICS. 



REMARKS 



OF 



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HON. A. O. BACON, 



OF GEORGIA, 

CITING SPEECHES OF EMINENT STATESMEN, 
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>>- ^J.^ IN THE 

> 

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



MAY 29, 1900. 



4486 



WASHINQXON. 

1900. 







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REMARKS 

OP 

HON. A. 0. BACON. 



The Senate liavius: vinder consideration the following resolution submit- 
ted by Mr. Teller: 

Whereas from the hour of achieving our independence as a people the peo- 
ple of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other 
people to free themselves from Euro)iean domination: Therefore, 

Resolved, That we watch with deep and abiding interest the war between 
Great Britain and the South Afi'ican Republics, and, with full determination 
to maintain a proper neutrality between the contending forces, we can not 
withhold our sympathy from the struggling people of the Republics, and it is 
our earnest desire that the Government of the United States, by its friendly 
offices offered to both jjowei's, may assist in bringing the war to a speedy con- 
clusion in a manner honorable to both Great Britain and the African Repub- 
lics- 
Mr. BACON said: 

Mr. President: On yesterday I gave notice that at this hour I 
would ask the courtesy of the Senate in order that I might sub- 
mit a few remarks on the resolution offered by the Senator from 
Colorado [Mr. Teij-er], With the permission of the Senate. I 
shall now proceed to do so. 

Mr. President, it is impossible for me to realize that anyone 
should fail to sympathize with the Boers in their struggle lor in- 
dependence who is devoted to republican government a'ld who 
loves free institutions. There is everything in the situation to 
excite our sympathies for them. It is a case of two of the small- 
est and feeblest of the governments of the earth eiigai;e:l in a 
struggle for life with the most powerful empire of all the world. 
It is the case of a plain, pastoral, home loviug. Christian people 
engaged in a death struggle for the protection and defense of their 
country, their homes, and their liberty. 

It is the case of twenty-five or thirty thousand plain farmers 
who have come from their fields and who are struggling for life 
with an army of 250,000 men. In my opinion their cause is ."just. 
Certainly no people w-ere ever more heroic than they in the de- 
fense of any cause. For myself I should regret to see these two 
little Republics utterly destroyed and this Government stand by 
unconcerned and make no sign in their behalf. 

It is not my purpose, however, Mr. President, to pursue that 
line of thought or to discuss the question as to whether or not 
their cause is one which we must all pronounce to be just. That 
has already been done by others. It is for the purpose of discuss- 
ing the propriety of adopting this resolution of sympathy that I 
ask the attention of the Sena.,te to-day. I can understand how 
Senators may sympathize with those engaged in this struggle and 
at the same time not be prepared to say that we shall pass the 
resolution offered by the Senator from Colorado. Speaking for 
myself, however ardent may be my feelings in this case. I do not 
desire that the Senate should commit itself to any proposition 
which would be violative of international obligations: and it is on 
the question as to whether the adoption of this resolution would 

2 ♦'ll'fi 



be violative of international obligations that I have ventured to 
take a small portion of the time of the Senate. 

These resolutions, Mr. President, in my opinion, are conserva- 
tive, are proper, and are not violative of international obligations. 
In the course of a limited practice at the bar, whenever I have 
desired to establish a legal proposition before a court, I have al- 
ways found when I could" produce an authoritative precedent 
from a court entitled to respect that that was better and more 
controlling than an argument which I myself could offer to the 
court. Proceeding upon that line, in support of the proposition 
that these resolutions are proper resolutions and that they are not 
violative of international obligations, I desire to ask the attention 
of tlie Senate — especially as we may in all probability be called 
upon to vote upon these resolutions, if not to-day, at a very early 
time — I would ask the attention of the Senate to what, has been 
said by the sages of our Government, men whose opinions we have 
heretofore been wont to regard not only with respect, but as au- 
thoritative, as precedents which we could safely follow. I could, 
of course, Mr. President, use a very large part of the time of the 
Senate in the production of such precedents, but I shall only ask 
the atbention of the Senate to a few. 

In 1825 war was flagrant Ijetween Greece and Turkey. Greece 
was in undoubted rebellion against Turkey. There was no ques- 
tion as to the technical sovereignty of Turkey; it was a case of 
revolution, in which Greece was attempting to throw off the rule 
of Turkey. At that time, on the lyth day of January, 1824, Mr. 
Webster, then a member of the House of Representatives, pre- 
sented a memorial in the House, and I read relative thereto from 
the Annals of Congress of the Eighteenth Congress, first session, 
volume 1, page 1083: 

Mr. Webster presented a memorial, signed by Thomas Sewall, John N. 
Moulder. E. B. Caldwell, Samuel N. Smallwood, and Andrew Way. jr., a 
committee appointed at a numerous meeting of the inhabitants of the city 
of Washington on behalf of said inhabitants, praying Congress to take meas- 
ures to assure the people of Greece of the deep interest felt by the people of 
this country in the contest which they are now carrying on against the Turk- 
ish Government for their emancipation and freedom and of the sincere good 
wishes of the Congress of the United States for the ultimate success and 
triumph of their cause; which memorial was committed to the Committee 
of the Whole House on the state of the Union. 

On the same day Mr. Webster addressed the House of Repre- 
sentatives upon a resolution which had been introduced by him 
to the following effect: 

Resolved, That provision ought to be made by law for defraying the ex- 
pense incident to the appointment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, 
whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such appointment. 

Mr. Webster's address is set out in full between pages 1086 and 
1097 of that volume of the Annals of Congress. I shall not take 
the time to read that speech, although it is very instructive and 
very applicable to the very question which we have before us, but 
will content myself with reading the concluding paragraph of it. 
Of course the entire speech can be very readily read by any Sena- 
tor who desires to refer to the volume. In the conclusion of that 
speech Mr. Webster used the following language: 

Mr. Chairman, there are some things which, to be well done, must be 
promptly done. If we even determine to do the thing that is now proposed 
we may do it too late. Sir, I am nob one of those who are for withholding aid 
when it is most urgently needed, and, when the stress is past and the aid no 
longer necessary, overwhelming the sufferer with caresses. I will not stand 
by and see my fellow-man drowning without stretching out a hand to help 
him, till he has by his own efforts and presence of mind reached the shore in 
44S6 



safety and then encumber him with aid. With suffering Greece, now is the 
crisis of her fate— her great, it may be, her last struggle. Sir, while we sit 
here deliberating her destiny may be decided. The Greeks, contending with 
ruthless oppressors, turn their eyes to us and invoke us by their ancestors, 
by their slaughtered wives and children, by their own blood, poured out like 
water, by the hecatombs of dead they have heaped up, as it were, to 
heaven— they invoke, they implore of us some cheering sound, some look of 
sympathy, some token of compassionate regard. They look to us as the great 
republic of the earth, and they ask us by our common faith whether we can 
forget that they are struggling, as we once struggled, for what we now so 
happily enjoy. I can not say, sir, that they will succeed; that rests with 
Heaven. But for myself, sir, if I should to-morrow hear that they have failed, 
that their last phalanx had sunk beneath the Turkish scimetar, that the 
flames of their last city had sunk in its ashes, and that naught remain but 
the wide, melancholy waste whei-e Greece once was, I should still reflect 
with the most heartfelt satisfaction that I have asked you in the name of 
seven millions of freemen that you would give them at least the cheering of 
one friendly voice. 

Mr. President, if those words had been used -with reference to 
the African republics and their present struggle by a Senator to- 
day, they would certainly have been as applicable as they were 
then to the conditions when Mr. Webster spoke. It is said by 
Senators that that was seventy-five years ago. 

Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, before the Senator leaves that 
point 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Mason in the chair). Does 
the Senator from Georgia yield to the Senator from Massachu- 
setts? 

Mr. BACON. I will very gladly yield to the Senator, although 
on former occasions he has denied to other Senators • a similar 
privilege. 

Mr. LODGE. I will not interrupt the Senator if he does not 
desire it. I merely wanted him to finish and tell the Senate what 
action the House took. 

Mr. BACON. I do not think they took any. It was in that 
case as in this: There were in that Congress men who occupied 
the same position relative to struggling peoples fighting for their 
liberties and their homes that the honorable Senator from Massa- 
chusetts to-day occupies toward people engaged in the same tre- 
mendous struggle. 

Mr. LODGE. The vote in the House to rise without action was 
unanimous. Mr. Webster himself voted for it. 

Mr. BACON. If Mr. Webster himself voted for it, it is very evi- 
dent that that was not intended as the conclusion of the matter 
and that the rising without action was intended as a temporary 
proceeding preliminary to further action at some other time. The 
Senator could not himself have given any higher evidence of the 
fact that that action was not in antagonism to what Mr. Webster 
was contending for. 

Mr. President, it is said by Senators that that was seventy- five 
years ago. While I do not know that that fact in any way depre- 
ciates the propriety and force of the words which were then 
spoken of a people then struggling in the same manner that the 
people are struggling for whom the resolution of the Senator from 
Colorado is intended to give expression, twenty-eight years after 
that Mr. Webster, who thereafter had had continued oificial expe- 
rience in public life, affirmed the proprietj' of what he then said. 
It will be remembered by Senators that I am now trying to bring 
to the attention of the Senate the utterances of the wise men, as 
we all regard them, of the past relative to the question of the 
propriety of an utterance similar to that to which expression will 
be given by this Government if we pass the Teller resolution. 

44:6 



Before proceeding, however, to call attention to the occasion 
upon which Mr. Webster reafBrmed what he had said in 1824, I 
call attention to what Mr. Sumner said, another Senator from 
Massachusetts. In December, 1851, Mr. Sumner, then a Senator 
from Massachusetts, in the Senate of the United States, upon the 
consideration of a special order, being the resolution of Mr. Seward 
of welcome to Kossuth, used this language: 

Mr. President, words are sometimes things; and I can not disguise from 
myself that the resolution in honor of Louis Kossuth, now pending before 
the Senate, when finally passed, will be an act of no small significance in the 
history of our country. 

I beg that I may have the attention of Senators as to what Mr. 
Sumner said upon the questicm of the propriety of giving utter- 
ance to such sentiments : 

The Senator from Georgia [Mr. Berrien] was right when he said that it was 
no unmeaning compliment. Beyond its immediate welcome to an illustrious 
stranger, it will help to combine and direct the sentiments of our own people 
everywhere; it will inspire all in other lands who are engaged in the contest 
for freedom; it will challenge the disturbed attention of despots, and it will 
become a precedent whose importance will grow, in the thick-coming events 
of the future, with the growing might of the Republic. In this view it be- 
comes us to consider well what we do and to understand the grounds of our 
conduct. 

For myself I am prepared to vote for it without amendment or condition 
of any kind and on reasons which seem to me at once obvious and conclusive. 

Mr. President, it may be said and will possibly be said that those 
were expressions of Senators simply in honor of a man who had 
been engaged in a struggle which was over and passed. However, 
as I shall show to the Senate, Governor Kossuth's visit to America 
was not a mere formality, but, as I shall read from a speech deliv- 
ered by him, to which another speech by Mr. Webster was made 
in response, he was here for the purpose of enlisting the sym- 
pathies of the American people and of the American Government, 
not simply in a contest which was past, but one which was then 
impending. 

I have here a little pamphlet which I obtained from the Con- 
gressional Library giving an account of the dinner given by mem- 
bers of Congress to Kossuth at the National Hotel in this city on 
the 7th of January. lSo2. There could scarcely have been an as- 
semblage of officials and dignitaries of this Government which 
could have more strongly asserted and emphasized the desire of 
this Government not only to do honor to Kossuth but to give ex- 
pression to its sympathy for the cause in which he had been en- 
gaged and for the further prosecution of the cause which he con- 
templated. 

Now. before reading anything with reference to that, in order 
that I may have it. in tiie proper connection, I read an extract from 
the speech made by Kossuth at that banquet, to which speech the 
speech of Mr. Webster, to which I shall hereafter allude and read, 
was directly and immediately responsive. Kossuth, in the course 
of his speech, to which Mr. Webster immediately responded, used 
this language: 

I came to the noble-minded people of the United States to claim its gener- 
ous operative .sympathy for the impending struggle of oppressed freedom on 
the European Continent. 

So, while it is true as suggested by the inquiry of the Senator 
from Nevada [Mr. Stewart] yesterday, that this banquet was 
after the Hungarian war. it was preceding an anticipated con- 
tinuance of that war. and in the presence of the avowed contem- 
plation by the honored guest of the evening that such would be 
the future course; and the speech made by Mr. Webster on that 

118B 



occasion, in immediate contemplation of the impending struggle. 
was concluded by the toast offered by him to •' riimgarian inde- 
pendence." So the question to which I recur as to tlie propriety 
of the resolution of the Senator from Colorado, whether m its 
adoption there is any violation of any international obligation, 
was directly involved and recognized in the utterances of these 
great men upon that occasion. 1 have spoken of the character of 
the gathering. This paper, containing the speeches of Mr. Web- 
ster and others upon that occasion, was published in the Globe 
office. I have no doubt it appeared in the Globe newspaper, 
although it is not so stated here. Speaking of the banquet, this 
language is used: 

On a dais in the center of the room was seated Hon. William R. King, Pres- 
ident of the Senate, and the presiding officer for the evening: to his right, 
the honored guest, Louis Kossuth, aud to his left, Hon. Daniel Webster, Sec- 
retary of State. To the right of the distinguished Hungarian, and at the 
same table, was seated Hon. Linn Boyd, Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives. * * * 

The president for the evening then requested gentlemen to fill their glasses 
for the first toast, which was: "The President of the United States." 

I read the response to that in order to show that the meeting, 
while the President was not there, was one which had his ap- 
proval. 

Mr. Webster rose and responded as follows: 

"I am here to-night, Mr. President, with other heads of departments who 
belong to the Executive Administration of the Government, and who are the 
confidential counsellors of the President. I rise on their behalf, as well as on 
my own, to tender to the company our thanks for the manner in which the 
health of the President has been received. I assure you, sir, and all present, 
that in kindness and good wishes toward the guest of this occasion and in 
attachment to the great principles of political liberty and national independ- 
ence [applause] there is no man who partakes in a higher degree than the 
President of the United States in the general feeling of this vast community." 
[Applause.] 

That was spoken by the Secretary of State for the then Presid ent of 
the United States. There were presentupon that occasion not oiily 
the Cabinet, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the 
House, and members of the Senate and members of the House, 
but justices of the Supreme Court and high officers of the Army 
and Navy, representing those i^articular branches. So at that 
banquet there may be said to have been represented all of the de- 
partments of Government. After several speeches from parties 
representing these different departments, from a .iudge of the 
Supreme Court, and generals in the Army, and representatives of 
the Navy, Governor Kossuth spoke, and immediately thereafter 
the Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, made his speech. 

Mr. Webster was not only a great constitutional lawyer; he 
was skilled in parliamentary practice and requirements and 
learned in international law. Aside from having been for a .gen- 
eration, and more than a generation, in the House and Senate, he 
had been the Secretary of State in two Administrations: and re- 
sponding immediatelj' after the speech of Mr. Kossuth, in which 
Kossuth used the language I have already read, that he had come 
here for the purpose of enlisting the operative sympathy of the 
United States in the then impending struggle m Europe, he pro- 
ceeded to deliver this speech, a part of which I will read: 

I have great pleasure in participating in this festival. It is a remarkable 
occasion. He who is your honored guesc to-night has led thus far a life of 
events that are viewedias highly important here, and still more important to 
his own country. Educated, .spirited, full of a feeling of liberty and inde- 
pendence, he entered early ioto the public councils of his native country, 
and he is here to-day fresh from acting his part iu the great struggle tor 
Hungarian national independence. That is not all his distinction. He was 
44*6 



brought to tliese shores by the authority of Congress. He has been welcomed 
to the capital of tlie United States by the votes of the two Houses of Con- 
gress. 

Mr. Seward (interrupting). He is welcome ! [And there were loud cries 
of " Welcome! " "" Welcome ! " from various parts of the house.] 

Mr. Webster (resuming). I agree, as I am not connected with either 
branch of the Legislature, in joining, and I do join in my loudest tones, in that 
welcome announced by them to him. [G-reat applause.] The House of Rep- 
resentatives, the immediate representatives of the people, full themselves of 
an ardent love of liberty, have joined in that welcome; the wisdom and so- 
briety of the Senate have joined in it; and the head of the Republic, with 
the utmost cordiality, has approved of whatsoever official act was necessary 
to bid him welcome to these shores [applause], and he stands here to-night 
in the midst of an assembly of both Houses of Congress, and others of us met 
here in our individual capacity, to join the general acclaim and signify to 
him with what pleasure we receive him to the shores of this free land, this 
asylum of oppressed humanity. [Applaiise.] Gentlemen, the effect of the 
reception thus given him can not but be felt. It can not but have its influ- 
ence beyond the ocean and among countries where our principles and our 
sentiments are either generally unknown or generally disliked. Let them 
go forth; let it be borne on all the winds of heaven that the sympathies of 
the Government of the United States and all the people of the United States 
have been attracted toward a nation struggling for a national independence, 
and toward those of her sons who have most distinguished themselves in 
that struggle. [Great applause.] 

1 have said that this can not be without its effect. We are too much in- 
clined to underrate the power of moral influence and the iTifluence of public 
opinion and the influence of principles to which great men, the lights of the 
world and ot the age, have given their sanction. Who doubts that, in our 
own struggle for liberty and independence, the majestic eloquence of Chat- 
ham, the jjrofound reasoning of Burke, the burning satire and irony of Col- 
onel Barre, had influences upon our fortunes here in America? They had 
influences both ways. They tended, in the first place, somewhat to diminish 
the confidence of the British ministry in their hopes of success in attempting 
to subjugate an injured people. They had infliience another way, because 
all along the coasts of the country — ana all our people in that day lived upon 
the coast — there was not a reading man who did not feel stronger, bolder, 
and more determined in the assertion ot his rights when these exhilarating 
accounts from the two Houses of Parliament reached him from beyond the 
seas. He felt that tho.=e who held and controlled public opinion elsewhere 
were with us; that their words of eloquence might produce an effect in the 
region where they were uttered; and, above all, they assured them that, in 
the judgment of the jnst and the wise and the impartial, their cause was 
just and they were I'ight; and, therefore, they said, "We will fight it out to 
the last." [Applause.] 

Now, gentlemen, another great mistake is sometimes made. We think 
that nothing is powerful enough to stand before autocratic, monarchical, or 
despotic power. There is something strong enough, quite strong enough, 
and if properly exerted will prove itself so, and that is the power of intelli- 
gent public opinion in all the nations of the earth. There is not a monarch 
on earth whose throne is not liable to be shaken to its foundation by the 
progress of opinion and the sentiment of the just and intelligent part of the 
community. It becomes us, therefore, in the station which we hold, to let that 
public opinion, so far as we form it, have a free course. ['■Bravo! Bravo! "] 
Let it go on: let it be pronounced in thunder tones; let it open the, ears 
of the deaf; let it open the eyes of the blind, and let it everywhere be 
proclaimed what we of this great Republic think of the general principle of 
human liberty and of that oppi'ession which all abhor. [Applailse and cries 
of "Good! "] Depend upon it, gentlemen, that between these two rival and 
conflicting powers the autocratic power maintained by arms and force and 
the popular power maintained by opinion, the former is constantlj' decreas- 
ing, and, thank God, the latter is constantly increasing. [A]3plause.] 

Freedom, human liberty, and human rights are gaining the ascendant 
upon earth; and the part we have to act in all this great di-ama is to show 
ourselves in favor of those rights, to uphold that ascendency, and to carry it 
on until we shall see it culminate in the highest heavens over our heads. 
[Applause.] 

On the topics, gentlemen, which this occasion seems to invite I have noth- 
ing to say, because in the course of my political life— not now a short one — I 
have said all I wish to say and all I wish to transmit to posterity connected 
with my own name and history. What I said of Greece five and twenty years 
ago, when our distinguished friend [turning to Kossuth] was too young'to be 
in political life, I repeat to-night, verbum post verbum, what I then said. 
[Great applause.] What I said of Spain at a later period, when the power of 
the restored Bourbons was exerted to impose upon Spain a dynasty not ac- 
ceptable to the people of Spain, that I repeat in English and Spanish and 
French and in every other language. [Applause and laughter.] 
«86 



8 

May I be so egotistical as to say that I have nothing to say upon the sub- 
ject of Hungary? G-eutlemen, in the autiimn of the year before last, out of 
health, retired to my paternal home among the mountains of New Hamp- 
shire, I was by my physical condition confined to my house; but I was among 
the mountains whose native air I was born to inspire. Nothing saluted my 
senses, nothing saluted my mind or my sentiments, but freedom, full and 
entire [applausel; and there, gentlemen, near the graves of my ancestors I 
wrote a letter, which most of you may have seen, addressed to the Austrian 
charge d'affaires. [Great applause, which was continued for some time.] 
Of course I think sufficiently humbly of the talent and ability displayed in 
that letter: but as to its principles, while the sun and moon endure, and while 
I can see -the light of the sun and moon, I stand by them. [Great applause.] 

In a letter dated February last, moved by tiiiese considerations, which 
have influenced all the Christian world, making no particular merit of it, I 
addressed a letter to the American minister at Constantinople to intercede 
with the Sublime Porte for the release of Loviis Kossuth and his companions 
in exile [applause], and I happen to know that it was not without some ef- 
fect. At any rate, it is proper for me here to say that this letter and that 
one to which I have before alluded were dispatched with the cordial appro- 
bation of the President of the United States. And they were, therefore, so 
far the act of the Government of the United States in its execiitive capacity. 
Now, I shall not further advert to these topics to-night, nor shall I go back to 
ancient times and discuss the merits of the Holy Alliance; but I say that in 
the sentiments avowed by me, I think in the year 18:^3 or 1834, in the case of 
Greece— interesting Greece— and in the more subsequent declarations of 
opinion, there is that which I can never depart from without departing 
from myself. I should cease to be what 1 am if I were to retract a single 
sentiment expressed in these several productions. 

Now, gentlemen, 1 do not propose at this hour of the night to entertain 
you, or attempt to entertain you, by any general disquisition upon the value 
of human freedom, upon the inalienable rights of man, or upon any general 
topics of that kind; but I wish to say a few words upon the precise question, 
as I understand it. that exists before the civilized world between Hungary 
«,nd the Austrian Government. 

A Voice. Out with it! 

Mr. Webster. A gentleman near me says, "Out with it." It shall come 
out. [Great and prolonged applause.] I wish to arrange the thoughts to 
which I desire to give utterance under two or three general heads. 

And in the first place I say that wherever there is in the Christian and 
civilized world a nationality of character, wherever there exists a nation of 
suflScient knowledge and wealth and population to constitute a government, 
then a national government is a necessary and proper result of nationality of 
character. We may talk of it as we please, but there is nothing satisfies a 
man in an enlightened age unless he is governed by his own country and the 
institutions of his own government and partakes in that government. No 
matter how easy be the yoke of a foreign power, no matter how lightly it sits 
upon the shoulders, if it is not imposed by the voice of his own nation and of 
his own country, he will not, he can not, and he means not to be happy under 
its burden. [Applause.] 

There is, gentlemen, one great element of human happiness mixed up 
with others. We have our social affections— our family affections; b\it then 
we have this sentiment of countrj' which imbues all our hearts and enters 
into all our other feelings; and that sentiment of country is an affection not 
only for the soil on which we are born, not only for the parents and broth- 
ers and sisters and friends that surround us, but for the habits and institu- 
tions and the government of that country. There is not a civilized and intelli- 
gentman on earth that enjoys entire satisfaction with hiscondition if he does 
not live under the government of his own nation, his own country, whose 
affiliations and sentiments and sympathies are like his own. Hence he can 
not say, "This is not my country; it is the country of another power; it is a 
country belonging to somebody else.'" Therefore I saj' that wherever there 
is a nation of sufficient intelligence and numbers and wealth to maintain a 
government distinct in its character, distinct in its history, distinct in its in- 
stitutions, that nation can not be happy but under a government of its own 
choice. [Applause.] 

Then the next question is whether Hungary, as she exists in our day, as 
we see her and as we know her, is distinct in her nationality, is competent 
in her population, is competent in her knowledge and devotion to correct 
sentiments, is competent in her national feeling for liberty and independence, 
to maintain a government that shall be Hungarian from beginning to end? 
Upon that subject, gentlemen. I have no manner of doubt. Let us look a 
little at the position in which this matter stands. What is Hungary? I am 
not. gentlemen, about to fatigue you with statistics and statements, but I 
wish to say, as 1 understand the matter— and I have taken some pains to look 
into it— that Hungary contains a sufficient population to constitute a nation. 

The following enumeration of the races that constitute the population of 
44Sb 



9 

Hnngarj^ s taken from one of the latest and most authoritative publications 
of Austrian statistics— that of Haenfler: 

HUNGARY, INCLUDING CROATIA AND SLAVONIA. 

Magyars 4,281,500 

Slowacks 2,200,000 

Eussniaks 350,000 

Servians 740,000 

Croatians 660,000 

Slavonians (Styrians) 50,000 

Bulgarians and others 13,800 

Slavonians, total 4,013.800 

Germans 9S6;000 

Wallachians 930,000 

Jews 250,000 

Greeks and others 62,500 



10,522,800 



TRANSYLVANIA. 

Magyars 360.170 

Szeklers 260,000 

Germans 250,000 

Wallachians 1,287,340 

Others 60,400 



2, 117, 910 

MILITARY FRONTIERS. 

Magyars 54,000 

Croatians. 693,960 

Servians 203.000 

Slavonians, total 895,960 

Germans _ 185,500 

Wallachians _ 100,000 



1, 235, 460 



TOTALS FOR ALL HUNGARY. 

Magyars 4,605,670 

Slavonians : 4,905,760 

Germans 1,421,500 

Wallachians 2,317,340 

Szeklers... 250,000 

Jews and others , 373,900 

Grand total 13,876,170 

By a still more recent account, taken from the official statistics of Austria, 
it appears that Hungary, including Transylvania and military frontiers, has 
112,000 square miles, with 14,500,000 inhabitants, and contains — 

Cities 75 

Towns 888 

Villages 16,000 

Boman Catholics 9,000,000 

Greeks 4.000.000 

Protestants 3,250,000 

Jews - 350,000 

Hungary is about the size of Great Britain and comprehends neai'lyhalf of 
the territory of Atfstria. 

It is stated by another authority that the population of Hungary is nearly 
14,000,000; that of England (in. 1841) nearly 15,000,000; that of Prussia about 
16,000,000. 

Thus it is evident that, in point of power, so far as power depends upon 
population, Hungary possesses as much power as England proper, or even as 
the Kingdom of Prussia. Well, then, thei'e is population enough— there are 
people enoug]|i. Wlio, then, are they? Their history is known to you as well 
as to myself, if not better, and I may say they are a distinct people from na- 
tions that surround them. They are distinct from the Austrians on the 
west and the Turks on the east; and I will say in the next place that they are 
an enlightened nation. They have their history; they have their traditions; 
they are attached to their own institutions and to their own constitutions, 
which have existed for more than a thousand years. 
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Gentlemen, it is remai'kable that on the western coasts of Europe political 
light exists. There is a sun in the political firmament, and that sun sheds 
his light and everybody may rejoice. But in eastern Europe, generally 
speaking, and on the confines between eastern Europe and Asia, there is no 
political sun in the heavens. It is all an arctic zone of political life. [Ap- 
plause.] The luminary that enlightens the world in general seldom rises 
there above the horizon. The light which they possess is at best crepuscular, 
a kind of twilight, and they are under the necessity of groping about to 
catch, as they may, any stray gleams of the light of day. [Hear! Hear!] Gen- 
tlemen, the country of which^your guest to-night is a native is a remarkable 
exception to that rule, and in fact, to the nations that surround her. Hun- 
gary is enlightened; she has shown through her whole historyfor many hun- 
dreds of years an attachment to the principles of civil liberty, and of law 
and of order, and obedience to the constitution which the will of the great 
majority have established. That is a fact which ought to be known wherever 
the question of the practicability of Hungarian liberty and independence are 
discussed. It ought to be known that Hungary stands oiTt from and above 
her neighbors in all that respects free institutions, constitutional govern- 
ment, and a hereditary love of liberty. [Applause.] 

Gentlemen, I have taken the pains to prepare some facts from an intelli- 
gent writer, and that writer, a lady, of course of gyeater authority than most 
writei's. [Laughter.] She says: 

"The Hungarian nation has been distinguished from its first appearance 
in history for uniting to a passionate love of liberty a scrupulous reverence 
for law. The Magyars did not enter the plains of Dacia an undisciplined rab- 
ble. Prom the first they possessed a fixed form of government, and were dis- 
tinguished for their subordination to their leaders and their laws. To these 
habits of discipline, in which the Magyai's were trained, in their love of order 
and regard for law, it is to be ascribed that they did not pass away, like the 
common hordes of barbarian adventurers, but established a permanent king- 
dom in the country they invaded. To these qualities, not less than to their 
courage, is to be ascribed their successful maintenance of their constitutional 
rights against all the attacks of a power before which the liberties of so many 
other nations have fallen. 

"The ancient institutions of the Magyars were eminently democratic. 
Their chief riiler was elected by the votes of the people. For the first cen- 
tury after their establishment in the country he received only the title of 
vezer, or leader. 

In the year iOOO they bestowed the title of king on Stephen, of the family 
Arpad, the leader under whose guidance they had entered Pannonia. The 
power of the king was, however, strictly limited. The consent of the people 
was necessary to give efficacy to every royal act. The excellent prince who 
first filled the throne of Hungary had no disposition to infringe the liberties 
of the people. On the contrary, he endeavored to guard them against the 
encroachments of future sovereigns. He framed a code of laws, founded on 
the ancient institutions of the Magyars, which have ever since been regarded 
as of the highest authority. These statutes were drawn up for the guidance 
of his son Emeric, whom he educated as his successor in the kingdom. The 
enlightened and humane spirit in which these decrees are composed gives a 
very high idea of the civilization and political advancement of Hungary at 
this period. We find in them an express recognition of the principle of uni- 
versal equality — " Omnes homines unius sunt conditionis." 

It is in the following terins that he prescribes the duty of a king toward 
his subjects: 

"Let them be to thee, my son, as brothers and fathers; reduce none of 
them to servitude, neither call them thy servants. Let them fight for thee, 
not serve thee. Govei'u them without violence and without pride— peace- 
fully, humbly, humanely— remembering; that nothing elevates but humility, 
that nothing abases but pride and an evil will. 

"My son, I pray thee, I command thee, to show thyself propitious not 
only to thy kindred, not only to princes, to leaders, to the rich, nor only to 
thy country people, but likewise to strangers and to all that come unto thee. 
Be patient with all, not only with the powerful but with those lacking 
power. Bear ever In thy mind this precept of the Lord, 'I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice. ' " 

He recognizes the right of the people to depose an unworthy prince: 

"If thou art mild and just, then Shalt thou be called a king, and the son of 
a king; but if thou art proud and violent, they will deliver thy kingdom to 
another." 

The princes of this dynasty (the house of Arpad), with few exceptions, 
were just and patriotic kings, who understood the origin and true objects of 
government, and held their power tor the benefit of the people, not for their 
own selfish aggrandizement. There are traits recorded of many of them 
■which proved them to have been the worthy successors of St. Stephen. 
"The Republic is not mine," said Geza II; "it is I who belong to the Republic. 
God has raised me to the throne in order that I may maintain the laws." In 
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1222 Andrew II issued the celebrated code of statutes known by the name of 
the "Golden Bull," by which the decrees of St. Stephen were confirmed and 
some new laws added to them, designed to secure yet further the liberties of 
the people. The Golden Bull has been termed a charter of aristocratic priv- 
ileges. It was so in the same sense that the great charter of English liberties 
may be called so. The Golden Bull corresponds very closely to the Magna 
Charter of King John, both in its provisions and as regards the class of per- 
sons whose liberties it was designed to protect. 

Now, gentlemen, I know nothing, nor does history, so far as I am informed, 
reveal anything of the private, personal, or religious character of this first 
king, St. Stephen; but this I know, in the political calendar he deserves to be 
considered a saint and to have his name registered in very large letters. 

Mr. Seward (interposing). Three cheers for St. Stephen! [The cheers 
were accordingly given.] 

Mr. Webster (continuing). Gentlemen, my sentiments in regard to this 
effort made by Hungary are here sufBciently well expressed. In a memorial 
addressed to Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston, said to have been writ- 
ten by Lord Pitzwilliam and signed by him and several other peers and mem- 
bers of Parliament, the following language is used, the object of the memorial 
being to ask the mediation of England in favor of Hungary: 

" While so many of the nations of Europe have engaged in revolutionary 
movements and have embarked in schemes of doubtful policy and still more 
doubtful success, it is gratifying to the undersigned to be able to assure your 
lordships that the Hungarians demand nothing out the recognition of ancient 
rights and the stability and integrity of their ancient constitution. To your 
lordships it can not be unknown that that constitution bears a striking family 
resemblance to that of our own country." 

Gentlemen, I have one other reference to make, and then I shall take leave 
of you. 

You know that in one of Shakesi)eares plays, speaking of the Duke of 
Vienna, he says; " If the Duke with other dukes come not to composition with 
the King of Hungary, why, then, all the dukes fall upon the King of Hungary." 
" Heaven grant us peace 1 " says another character. "Thou concludest," says 
the first speaker, "like the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the 
Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table—' thou shalt not steal 1 ' 
Aye, that he razed out of the listl " " Why, 'twas a commandment to com- 
mand the captain and all the rest from their functions; there is not a soldier 
of us all that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well 
that prays for peace. " 

Now, I am afraid that, like the dukes of Austria at the time to which 
Shakespeare refers, the present sovereign of that country doth not relish the 
petition for peace unless it be founded on the utter extermination of the 
nationality of Hungary. 

Gentlemen, I have said that a national government, where there is a dis- 
tinct nationality, is essential to human happiness. I have said that in my 
opinion Hungary is capable. She possesses that distinct nationality, that 
power, that popiilatiou, and that wealth which entitles her to have a govern- 
ment of her own; and I have now to add, what I am sure will not sound well 
upon the Upper Danube, that in my humble judgment the imposition of a 
foreign yoke upon a people capable of self-government, while it oppresses 
and depresses that people, adds nothing to the strength of those who impose 
that yoke. [Great applaiise.] In my opinion Austria would be a better and 
a stronger Government to-morrow if she confined the limits of her power to 
her hereditary and German dominions 

Mr. Seward. True; true. 

Mr. Webster (continuing). Especially if she saw in Hungary a strong, 
sensible, independent neighboring nation, because I think the cost of keeping 
Hungary quiet is not repaid by any benefit derived trom Hungarian levies 
or tributes. Add then, again, good neighborhood, and the good will and 
generous sympathies of mankind, and the generosity of character that ought 
to pervade the minds of governments as well as those of individuals, is vastly 
more promoted by living in a state of friendship and amity with those who 
differ from us in modes of government than by any attempt to consolidate 
power, or, as it has Ijpen termed to-night, to concentrate power in the hands 
of one over all the rest. 

Gentlemen, the progress of things is no doubt onward. It is onward with 
respect to Hungary. It is onward everywhere. Public opinion, in my esti- 
mation at least, is making great progress. It will penetrate all recesses; it 
will come more or less to animate all minds; and in re.spect to that coimtry 
for which our sympathies to-night have been so strongly invoked. I can not 
but say that I think the people of Hungary are an enlightened, industrious, 
sober, well-inclined community, and I wish only to add that I do not now enter 
into anj' discussion of the form of government which may be projjer for 
Hungary. Of course, all of you, like myself, would be glad to see her, when 
she becomes independent, embrace that system of government which is most 
acceptable to ourselves. We shall rejoice to see our American model upon 

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the Lower Danube and on the mountains of Hungary. But that is not the 
first step. It is not that which will be our first prayer tor Hungary. That 
first prayer would be that Hungary may become independent ot all foreign 
power [great applause], that her destinies may be intrusted to her own 
.hands and to her own discretion. [Renewed applause.] 

I do not profess to understand the social relations and connections of races, 
and twenty other things that may affect the political institutions of Hungary. 
All I say is that Hungary can regulate these matters for herself infinitely bet- 
ter than they can be regulated for her by Austria [applause] ; and, there- 
fore, I limit my aspirations ior Hungary, for the present, to that single and 
simple point— Hungarian independence. 

Mr. Sewakd. Hungarian independence! [Applause.] 

Mr. Webster. Hungarian self-government; Hungarian control of Hun- 
garian destinies. [Renewed applause.] These are the aspirations which I 
entertain, and I give them to you, therefore, gentlemen, as a toast: 

"Hungarian independence: Hungarian control of her own destinies; and 
Hungary as a distinct nationality among the nations of Europe." [The toast 
was received with enthusiastic applause.] 

Mr. President, my apology, if any is required, for reading at 
length this speech is twofold. In the first place, it is directly in 
maintenance of the proposition that expressions such as those 
proposed to be given in the resolution of the Senator from Colo- 
rado are not improper and not violative of international obliga- 
tions, and. in the next place, these words were spoken by Daniel 
Webster at a time when he was Secretary of State of the United 
States. 

The Senate will remember that in the course of this speech IVIr. 
Webster spoke with a great deal of satisfaction of the letter which 
he had written among his native New Hampshire hills, and he 
not only spoke of it with satisfaction but said that as long as life 
should last and as long as he could see the light of the moon and 
of the sun those would be his sentiments, and that he could never 
depart from them until he ceased to become a part of himself. I 
have been the less reluctant in reading this speech in the Senate 
because, so far as I can ascertain, the full speech is not anywhere 
in print except in this little pamphlet from which I have read it. 

I will read a part of the letter that he referred to as having been 
composed by him in the quiet of the New Hampshire hills, near 
the graves of his ancestors, where nothing saluted his senses, his 
mind, or his sentiments "but freedom, full and entire." It was 
a letter written by him as Secretary of State, addressed to the 
Austrian charge d'affaires, in response to a letter which this Aus- 
trian official had addressed to him. The objects of the letter ad- 
dressed by jVIr. Hiilsemann to the Secretary of State are indicated 
in the following extract from IVIr. Webster's letter in reply: 

The objects of Mr. Hulsemann's note are, first, to protest, by order of his 
Government, against the steps taken by the late President of the United 
States to ascertain the progress and probable result of the revolutionary 
movements in Hungary: and, secondly, to complain of some expressions in 
the instructions of the late Secretary of State to Mr. A. Dudley Mann, a con- 
fidential agent of the United States, as communicated by President Taylor to 
the Senate on the 38th of March last. 

The principal ground of protest is founded on the idea or in the allegation 
that the Government of the United States, by the mission of Mr. Maun and 
his instructions, has interfered in the domestic affairs o* Austria in a manner 
unjust or disrespectful toward that power. 

In the course of this letter, ]Mr. Webster used the following 
language: 

Certainly the United States may be pardoned, even by those who profess 
adherence to the principles of absolute governments, if they entertain an 
ardent affection for those popular forms of political organization which 
have so rapidly advanced their own prosperity and happiness, and enabled 
them, iu so short a period, to bring their country and the hemisphere to 
which it belongs to the notice and respectful regard, not to say the admira- 
tion, of the civUized world. Neverthi'less, the United States have abstained 
at all times from acts of interference with the political changes of Europe. 
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They can not, however, fail to cherish always a lively interest in the for- 
tunes of nations struggling for institutions like their own. 

But this sympathy, so far from being necessarily a hostile feeling toward 
any of the parties to these great nationa,l sti'uggles, is quite consistent with 
amicable relations with them all. The Hungarian people are three or four 
times as numerous as the inhabitants of these United States were when the 
American Revolution broke out. They possess, in a distinct language, and 
in other respects, important elements of a separate nationality, which the 
Anglo-Saxon race in this country did not possess; and if the United States 
wish success to countries contending for popular constitutions and national 
independence, it is only because they regard such constitutions and such 
national independence not as imaginary but as real blessings. They claim 
no right, however, to take part in the struggles of foreign powers in order 
to promote these ends. It is only in defense of his own Government, and its 
principles and character, that the undersigned has now expressed himself 
on this subject. But when the United States behold the people of foreign 
countries without any such interference spontaneously moving toward the 
adoption of institutions like their own, it surely can not be expected of them 
to remain wholly indifferent spectators. 

I can at this time read only one other extract from this letter 
written by Mr. Webster. It is as follows: 

Toward the conclusion of his note Mr. Hlilsemann remarks that "if the 
Government of the United States were to think it proper to take an indirect 
part in the political movements of Europe, American policy would be ex- 
posed to acts of retaliation and to certain inconveniences which would not 
fail to affect the commerce and industry of the two hemispheres. " As to this 
possible fortune — this hypothetical retaliation — the Government and people 
of the United States are quite willing to take their chances and abide their 
destiny. Taking neither a direct nor an indirect part in the domestic or in- 
testine movements of Europe, they have no fear of events of the nature 
alluded to by Mr. Hulsemann. It would be idle now to discuss with Mr. 
Hiilsemann those acts of retaliation which he imagines may possibly take 
place at some indefinite time hereafter. Those questions will be discussed 
when they arise, and Mr. Hiilsemann and the cabinet at Vienna may rest as- 
sured that, in the meantime, while performing with strict and exact fidelity 
all their neutral duties, nothing will deter either the Government or the 
people of the TJnited States from exercising, at their own discretion, the 
rights belonging to them as an independent nation, and of forming and ex- 
pressing their own opinions, freely and at all times, upon the great'political 
events which may transpire among the civilized nations of the earth. 

Recurring to the Kossuth banquet, I read a few extracts from 
other speeches delivered on the occasion. Stephen A. Douglas, 
in the course of his speech, said: 

Mr. President, 1 believe these results would follow dii'ectly and legitimately 
from the acknowledgment of that great law ol: nations, that every nation 
upon the face of the globe has a right to choose its own form of government, 
to establish its domestic institutions, without tne intervention of any foreign 
power. [Applause.] Then let me submit to you, if these results would fol- 
low from that declaration, and if that declaration is predicated upon the law 
of nations, of justice, and of humanity, why should not every friend of free- 
dom be willing to proclaim the i^rinciple to the civilized world as the honest, 
gushing sentiment of his heart? [Applause.] For one, I hold that it is the 
duty of all republicans to demonstrate to the world upon which side we are 
whenever a contest arises between republicanism and absolutism [cries of 
"Bravo!" and applause], and that demousti'ation should be made so clearly, 
so distinctly, that no despot can misunderstand its meaning. 

Further in his speech IVIr. Douglas said: 

The question with me is not whether the despots of Europe would choose 
to take otfense at o\ir action, but whether such action would be just cause 
of offense— a violation of tlie laws of nations and of the principles of right 
and justice! [Applause.] By what authority do these conspirators against 
the rights of the people and the independence of nations say to republican 
America that we nave no right to sympathize with ])opular movements for 
the establishment of democratic institutions everywhere? The history of 
Europe for the last two hundred years consists of a succession of interven- 
tions by the larger powers with the internal affairs of the smaller powers, in 
utter disregard of their rights as sovereign States and of the principles of 
international law. These interventions have been pi-ompted, sometimes, by 
the ambitious views of partii-ular dynasties, frequently for the silly purpose 
of maintaining the absui-d scheme of a European equilibrium, and always to 
crush any effort for the establishment of free institutions. It is one thing to 
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intervene in violation of international law for the purpose of depriving a 
nation of its liberty and independence; and it is entirely a different thing to 
interpose in vindication of that law for the purpose of maintaining the great 
principle that every nation has a right to choose and establish its own insti- 
tutions. [Applause.] 

A Voice. He speaks foj'. the West. [Applause.] 

Another Voice. Y' " ''''nd for the whole country. [Applause.] 

Lewis Cass, in tM He of his speech made at the banquet, 

said: 

Well, gentlemen, I am an old man. [Laughter, and cries of " No! " " No! "] 
I am approaching my three score years and ten. Half a century ago I crossed 
the mountains a boy, on foot, and G-od be thanked tor the institutions of this 
country and the favor of my fellow-citizens, which have given me the privi- 
lege now of maintaining human rights in such a presence as this. [Applause. ] 
The sun of heaven never shown on such a government as this; and shall we 
sit blindfolded, with our arms crossed, and say to tyranny, "Prevail in every 
other region of the world? " [Cries of " No! " " No! "] I thank you for the re- 
sponse. That is my feeling. Now, my friends, I am willing to say that is the 
law of nations. [Laughter and applause.] Every independent nation under 
heaven has a right to establish .iiist such a government as it pleases; and if 
the oppressed of any nation wish to throw off their shackles, they have the 
. right, without the interference of any other; and with the first and greatest 
of our Presidents— the Father of his Country — I trust we are prepared to say 
that " we sympathize with every oppressed nation which unfurls the banner 
of freedom." [Applause.] 

Mr. Seward being called, rose and responded as follows; 

I am too wise a man to speak on any question here at this hour of the 
night. When it was proposed in the Senate to receive the illustrious guest 
of the night, I was advised not to hurt his cause by advocating it. I have only 
to say that when the Secretary of State goes his length, the Senator from 
Illinois his breadth, and the Senator from Michigan his tether, I shall be 
found at their side willing to go for the rights of Hungary and of nations as 
far as he who goes the farthest. 

I will only add to the foregoing the following extract from the 
platform of principles announced by the Republican party at its 
last national convention, at St. Louis in 1896, expressing sympathy 
with the Cubans in their struggle for independence: 

Cuba. — Prom the hour of achieving their own independence the people of 
the United States have regarded with sympath3' the struggles of other 
American peoples to free themselves from European domination. We watch 
with deep and abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against 
cruelty and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their 
determined contest for liberty. 

The Senate will note that the language in this extract from the 
Republican platform is almost identical with the language of the 
resolution now before us. 

Mr. President, these utterances from these eminent men should 
be sufficient to establish the proposition that this resolution of 
sympathy and desire to end the war against the Boers is proper 
and not violative of international obligation. 

Mr. DAVIS. I move to refer the resolution to the Committee 
on Foreign Relations. 

Mr. TELLER. Will the Senator allow me to ask to have 
printed in- the Record a couple of resolutions? 

Mr. DAVIS. Certainly. 

Mr. TELLER. I desire to put in the Record a resolution which 
was presented to the Senate and passed the Senate under the 
direction of Senator Sumner in 1861. and one which was passed in 
the House in 1868. I simply ask to have them put in the Record. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado asks 
unanimous consent to insert in the Record the resolutions to 
which he has referred. 

Mr. CHA]S[DLER. I ask to have them read. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The resolutions will be read. 

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